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Susan Eubanks - California Death Row

Austin Eubanks, 7

Brigham Eubanks, 6

Matthew Eubanks, 4

Brandon Armstrong, 14

Summary of Offense:

Eubanks was convicted of four counts of first-degree murder for the October 26, 1997 shooting deaths of her four sons ---- Brandon Armstrong, 14, Austin Eubanks, 7, Brigham Eubanks, 6, and Matthew Eubanks, 4, at their San Marcos home.

Eubanks was sentenced to death in San Diego County on October 13, 1999.

VISTA -- A sentencing hearing for a woman convicted of the execution slayings of her four young sons ended Tuesday with the prosecutor urging that she receive the death penalty and her defense attorney pleading for her life.

"Remember the children and consider the horror they must have felt as their mother took aim and fired," prosecutor Bonnie Howard-Regan told jurors.

A few jurors fought back tears and averted their eyes as the prosecutor showed them enlarged photos of each boy with gunshot wounds on the head. At the time of the killings, Brandon was 14, Austin, 7; Brigham, 6; and Matthew, 4.

"If this defendant does not deserve the death penalty, then who does?" Howard-Regan said.

The same San Diego County Superior Court jury that found Susan Eubanks, 35, guilty of four counts of first-degree murder now must decide whether she should receive the death penalty or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

The jury is scheduled to deliberate Wednesday.

Ms. Eubanks killed her four sons on Oct. 26, 1997, after a day spent drinking and arguing with her boyfriend. She also shot herself in the stomach, but paramedics arrived before she died.

She was convicted three weeks ago after the jury deliberated for less than three hours. Ms. Eubanks did not testify during the trial or the penalty phase.

The prosecutor says the murders were designed to get revenge on her boyfriend, ex-boyfriend and estranged ex-husband.

Vince Garcia, one of Ms. Eubanks' attorneys, told attorneys that giving her life imprisonment would mean decades of hardship.

"I suggest that this is a time for punishment, not a time to kill. I ask you to let this troubled life go on until it ends on God's terms," Garcia said.

Her attorneys contend she killed the children in a moment of weakness after several years of fighting addiction to prescription drugs for work injuries and several failed relationships with men. Her judgment clouded by too much alcohol and valium, Ms. Eubanks decided to commit suicide and kill the children because she believed her children might be taken away from her, Garcia said.

"She was broken. She was killing herself," Garcia said. "This was a suicide and she was taking the children with her."

Garcia asked jurors to consider that Eubanks was brought up by alcoholic parents in a home where violence and abuse were prevalent.

Howard-Regan, however, argued that Ms. Eubanks' dysfunctional childhood served only as a smokescreen.

"The problem with that argument is look at people who have that same background and their children are still alive. They haven't killed their children," Howard-Regan said.

A San Diego woman who shot and killed her four children failed Monday to win a reprieve from the California Supreme Court, which voted unanimously to uphold her death penalty.

In a ruling written by Justice Ming W. Chin, the state's highest court rejected an automatic appeal by Susan Dianne Eubanks, who was convicted of murdering her sons Brandon, 14; Austin, 7; Brigham, 6; and Matthew, 4, in October 1997.

After drinking and taking tranquilizers, Eubanks put a revolver to the temple of Brandon, her eldest son, and shot him, according to the court's opinion. She fired another shot into his neck from a few inches away. She shot her younger three boys in their bedroom.

Before shooting herself in the abdomen, Eubanks left several notes, including an instruction that she be buried in the same casket with her youngest son. Detectives found the notes in the San Marcus home shortly after the bloodshed.

Evidence presented at her trial showed that Eubanks had become addicted to prescription drugs after suffering a workplace injury. She had lost her job, and she and her husband were having marital problems.

The court said her oldest son had telephoned the mother of his best friend for help before he was killed. The woman told him to reassess the situation and call back if necessary.

Eubanks challenged her death sentence on several grounds, including the fact that the trial court admitted evidence during the penalty phase that she had once smeared her nephew’s face with feces. The court said the evidence was proper because it was intended to rebut claims that she had been a good mother.

Legal errors made at the trial were minor, and the jury would have voted for death even without them, the court concluded.

hello my names Denise and I'm new on here but i had to comment on this horrific story. I'm from San Diego and I remember reading this story and hearing it on the news as i myself was in custody awaiting to be transported to prison as i got on the bus i seen Susan sitting in the front of the bus in a green top and bottoms marked SD SHERIFF we were all heading to prison some more time then others but only Susan heading to death row...I watched her, trying to play it over in my head with me having 3 kids of my own who are now grown , i wonder what went thru her mind knowing this is her last time seeing the outside world thru a meshed window on a prison bus and as she laughed and acted like she was going on vacation i became more angry as did the rest of the girls on the bus. you are suppose to love and protect your children, the oldest was 14 ran from her begged her not to kill him. I wish to god they would blow of photos of her 4 beautiful children that didn't even get a chance at life and hang them on her cell walls to look at every single damn day..Oddly enough she was housed with other baby killer Veronica Gonzales.. R.I.P you beautiful babies...and to you Susan may you rot every single day for what you did to those beautiful kids..